Professional in the strict sense of the word - being paid for it. It wasn’t a slight on their abilities.
My apologies for the further hijack, but I’ve just remembered what we used to call our rubbish collection folk, before it all went high-tech. We used to call 'em “dusties” here, short for “dustmen”, as in:
[sings]“My old man’s a dustman, he wear’s a dustman’s hat …” [/sings].
The peopple who used to empty the dunnies were called “night watchmen” when I was a kid.
I knew the terms “dunny can man” and “honey pot collector” for the men who used to empty the dunny.
The small lanes between the backs of houses in inner city Sydney were “dunny can lanes”. You could (prolly still can) look down a dunny can lane and see a row of small pointed roofs either side of the lane, like small urban temples!
Ditto. They were gone a decade before I was born in Auckland, reprise, but here they were called “night watchmen” or “night men”, with the night carts carrying away the night soil. Used to scare the daylights out of impressionable kids with th’ rattling, so I understand.
I have always wanted to be known as a cockie, but not for tilling of the soil. 
Quasi
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No NO!! PLEASE do!!! They sound fascinating!!!
Since the Connies (the term for tram conductors down here in Vic and the equivalent to what TLD called Snappers) have gone from our trams, we now have The Gumbies…dressed like stormtroopers and all closet sadists. You always know when there is a Gumbie Attack about to happen because a cry goes up on the tram “Gumbies Ahead” and everyone without a ticket leaps off at the next stop.
Alas, sometimes the on-tram attack is just a decoy, and there are packs of them waiting at the stop to pounce upon the ticketless travellers who attempt to do a runner.
David Attenborough would be very impressed with the antics of these wild animals.
[…sheepishly raising hand…] Another Greta Garbo sucker here.
Just a note from a man who has earned his living as a garbageman: be tolerant of those so afflicted. Of course, you are a decent sort, nobody doubts that. But your neighbor is a pig.
If we can just go back to the OP for a second… my mother works in what I shall call the “Garbologist Organization Department” (GOD) of our local council, one that is I believe, shared with TheLoadedDog.
The Straight Dope (I’ve always wanted to say that) on this is that it is much much cheaper to pay those what do the collectin’ to work on public holidays than it is to get them to work double length shifts.
I’ve never cared to ask about Xmas day and Good Friday, but for most other public holidays, there will be GOD’s workers picking up your garbage. But again, it should be in your local newspaper if there are any changes.
One other reason is that a lot of them actually work two jobs. Being a Garbo means you start at (sometimes) 2:30am, and work through until about 8:30. Many of them then go on to work on Road Crews, and for the Parks & Gardens Dept, which knocks off about 4:30.
There are other crews (much smaller) that will go around and pick up whatever the main crews missed (which happens often), as well as things like roadkill, and other refuse that is disrupting traffic etc…
But unless you are a bastard, you will not ring and say it was missed just because you forgot, as it goes on the drivers record as a missed pickup, when it’s really just a lazy homeowner.
Nah…I’m just a lazy homeowner.
HOWEVER…I’ve just realised, from Thylacine’s heads-up, that I haven’t recieved a local paper in yonks [trans: a very long time].
Now that, I will start whingeing about…tomorrow!
It’s all ‘The Leader’s’ fault.
